The present invention relates generally to improvements in vehicle safety belt devices and it relates more particularly to an improved vehicle safety belt buckle or coupling device.
Safety or restraint belts have been extensively employed for the occupants of the seats of automobiles and other transport facilities to minimize any injury to the passengers attendant to accidents. Conventional buckles for seat belts of this kind are largely of the type in which a handle provided on the buckle body is elevated to release from the buckle the coupling tongue piece fastened to the end of the belt. However, buckles of this type were complex in construction and posed many problems unsolved from the viewpoint of workability and calling for improvement.
In view of such circumstances, extensive research has been conducted by the present inventor in an attempt to improve buckles of various types, and he has previously proposed a buckle for seat belts having high safety performance, by which a certain portion of the buckle is depressed by a finger to release the engagement between the buckle and the tongue piece, replacing the elevating motion of a handle of the conventional devices.
While the resulting buckle structure had some advantages, it possessed numerous disadvantages. It was a somewhat bulky, awkward and complicated device, difficult and expensive to fabricate and assemble, and otherwise left much to be desired.
It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved vehicle safety belt device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved vehicle safety belt coupling device.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved vehicle safety belt buckle.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved device of the above nature characterized by its high reliability, ruggedness, simplicity, compactness, ease and convenience of use, low cost of manufacture and assembly, and great versatility and adaptability.
The above and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments thereof.
In a sense, the present invention comtemplates the provision of an improved safety belt buckle for use with a coupling tongue having a latch opening in which the buckle includes a body having a base wall and longitudinally spaced side walls having parallel longitudinal slots, the base wall being provided with an upwardly directed latch member which releasably engages the coupling tongue latch opening, the tongue leading end being insertable into the body member to bring the latch opening into vertical registry with the latch member and being vertically movable to bring the latch opening and member into releasable engagement. A transversely extending lock bar or pin extends between and has its ends slideably engaged by the side wall slots and lies in the longitudinal path of the raised leading end of the inserted coupling tongue and is longitudinally movable between positions rearward of and overlying the leading end of the tongue to define unlock and lock positions respectively, and is spring biased to its lock position. A finger operated release member is selectively actuatable to move the lock bar to its unlock position and may be in the form of a slide member coupled to the lock bar by a lost motion coupling or a swingably supported member having cam surfaces engaging the lock bar. The release member is spring biased to a retracted position.
The improved buckle is simple, inexpensive, rugged, reliable, easy and convenient to operate, highly compact, simple to manufacture and of great versatility and adaptability.